User blog:Sparrow81/How I go about using Autoshipment. by Ag3nt Phatty
Hey all, I was requested to explain how I go about using Autoshipment (AS) on my system as I was the first to use this support and have gotten a pretty good feel for it now. I have done up a few layouts for various players by taking a screen cap in combination with paint. If anyone wants help, lemme know and I’ll do my best. That being said, I’m still learning and when I unlock the Trade Station teleport mod, will most likely change my plan again. I will explain what I do with my current shipment cycle for those who just want a quick read. I have gone into greater detail on the AS below that. Hope this helps. If you go to my system, my planets are labelled as such. Outer top left, top left, top mid, top right, mid right, mid, mid left and bottom mid. Just helps me know what shipments I need to pick up and move. For ease here, I have included on the image: Start, 1, 2, 3 My starting place is where I left my transports last, either at the RedStar Scanner or the Research Station. I have 3 transports. 1 with AS and Trade burst 2 with Trade burst and Trade Boost Although I may replaced trade boost with computer shipment as trade boost is a realistically used every 36 hrs while computer shipment is every 12 hrs. I move one transport each to the planets labelled #1 and pick-up shipments labelled 3. I then move those shipments to my loading planet labelled #2. Thankfully I only have 1 loading planet. I then hit AS. I then move all shipments from my loading planet labelled #2 to their respective planets labelled #3. I of course go to the planet labelled #3 with the most shipments first to utilize hydro. Just before those transports reach their first destination I then hit trade boost and burst to save on time. When I am at one of the planets #3, I only pick up shipments going to others labelled #3 first and after that fill with shipments labelled #2 or #1. I then move those shipments from #3 to #2 and repeat. Pretty simple. For those who want a more detail of my experience on AS, read below. Autoshipment (AS) will reduce hydrogen cost and time spent on moving shipments around. For example, before finding my 8th planet (outer top left – green), I was only using 10k to 13k hydro every 36 hours with autoshipment, doing shipments every 11.5 hrs. That included Autoshipment activation, shipment computer and warp lane activation. Time wise, it would take me less than 15 minutes per shipment evolution. Now by adding just 1 more planet, I am now about 12k– 16.5k (replaced shipment computer with trade boost and burst) and it takes me approx. 20 minutes per shipment evolution. To utilize you want to keep a few key factors in mind: -Warp hubs placement & length -Planet loading selection & location -shipment path movement. -starting point, placement of Redstar Scanner, Research Station Warp Hub placement: It is essential that you understand you will get the most out of AS when you realize that number or potential destinations can be greater than trying to cut down on distance. For example, your first 2 starting sectors have 3 planets and 4 moons totally 98 possible shipments but more important, 7 different shipment requirements to and from each of those planets. The closest you can get a warp hub to a planet is 27 hydro (at least that’s the closest I have achieved) and since AS only cost 500 hydro to activate but does not require any hydro for movement there after, this is where you save cut your hydro cost when transferring shipments from inside the connected hubs going to planets outside of the connected hubs. You will see that I have utilized the sector with 2 planets and 3 moons to cut down my costs and have placed my Loading planet hub so that I have placed it directly in-between the two planets. I strongly believe this is the starting point for every system. Take a look at how I merge all shipments up to my loading planet. 'Planet Loading selection and location: '''Depending on your system, you will have 1, 2 or even 3 loading planets. The more loading the planets, the more hydro you will use, so having more warp lanes to cut this down will help. Selecting a planet that can hold a lot of shipments will also aid in helping you cut both hydro and time down. I’ve selected a planet with 27 as my loading planet so I am able to laod a max of 54 shipments and I’ve only seen the “over limit msg” a couple times which lasted maybe 30 seconds. '''Shipment path movment: ' This is where it gets tricky and is easier to get an understanding with time and feel than explanation but I will try my best by describing my first experience with AS; additionally, depending on your system size and how many loading planets will determine your shipment moment. Ultimately you want to eliminate ½ of your system thus concentrating your loading planet movement on the other half. But this is very hard to do if your planets are very spread out or if you have a large system and or have few hubs. The more hubs the better! The result is what I like to call the pendulum shipment moment....Or maybe the calculus shipment moment for those who understand how calculus works. You start with moving your shipments from the left side to the right, then from the right side to the left or from up to down or down to up ect.. These are only for the shipments outside of the connected hubs of course.Yea, very hard to explain so I’ll do it with My first experience with AS for I had only 2 hubs and 7 planets. You can still use my system image to follow along. My hubs were from the very bottom to the middle and from the middle to the very top middle planet. Basically a straight line, using 2 hubs but connecting 3 sectors, totalling 4 planets and 3 moons. This would require 2 loading planets to move shipments around effectively. The green planet did not exist. I also had my Research Station and Red Star Scanner by the middle left planet with 1 moon so that was my starting point. My planet names for that system were labelled as followed top left, top mid, top right, mid right, mid, mid left and bottom mid for ease. I would move all shipments from mid left to the mid planet. After that was complete, I would move all shipments from the mid, mid right and bottom mid planet labelled mid left, top left and top right to the mid planet. That was my loading planet #1. I would then move all shipments labelled top left and top right from the mid planet to the top mid planet, this was my 2nd loading planet. I would then move the shipments form the top mid to the top right and top left respectively and bring all the shipments from them to the top mid planet. I have now complete the first stage of the pendulum. I would then move all shipments labelled mid left from the top mid planet down to the mid planet, my 1st loading planet. I would then complete my shipment cycle by moving all the shipments labelled mid left from the mid planet and thus leaving me at the starting place, which is by my Red Star Scanner / Research Station. I used compute shipment at the time, which is why I used the planet with 2 moons as my loading planet. I would just bounce of the closest moon and then way point from the mid planet to the mid left planet to take advantage of the shipment computer. For the top left and top right planets I would bounce off the warp hub to use shipment computer. '''Starting Point & Placement of Redstar Scanner, Research Station: '''Your starting point is usually where you leave your transports last. The Redstar Scanner or the Research Station, or maybe a moon. If you look at my system, I have located my Redstar Scanner as close to the planet with 2 moons. This way when I am in a Red Star with lots of arts I can quickly drop off those arts on one of the moons passing by, with can be less than 5 hydro and 3 sec travel time or to the research scanner in the event that the moon is on the other side of the planet. Also, when I start my shipments, the travel time is at a minimum from the Redstar Scanner / Research Station to picking up my first shipment. If I could I would move the diplomacy station closer to cut down the travel time / hydro cost when going to do my Diplomacy Partners shipments. Well, lots to digest. Hope that helps. Category:Blog posts